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Chalkboard paint creates low cost home upgrade

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Chalkboard walls can be educational, inspirational and fun. For less than $20, a day of painting results in walls that invite family members to doodle, comment and draw.
(Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood | MLive.com)

The holidays are fast approaching but there’s still a bit of time to feather your nest so it’s cozy and bright and exactly the sort of place your family wants to spend the holiday break from school and work.

With this goal in mind, my husband and I dedicated the day after Thanksgiving to a 13-hour painting marathon that included three colors of paint - aqua, peach burst and black.

Black? Really?

While is sounds a bit nuts to paint one’s home interior black just in time for the holidays, I want to clarify that we haven’t gone goth even though that would probably be easier to explain to relatives than our vegetarian lifestyle. The black walls are not a protest move - although they could be because the dark paint transformed our walls into giant chalkboards that rock.

As soon as the paint dried, the black walls seemed to have a magnetic effect on our daughters who voluntarily stepped away from computer games and streaming videos to pick up chalk and draw on the walls. Obviously, the novelty of writing on the walls will soon wear off for all of us, but I have big plans to save some trees by hosting chalkboard spelling quizzes on the wall of our kitchen.

Some folks are into massive TVs and in-ground pools, but I’m quite content with $20-worth of chalkboard paint. Keep your diamonds and hand me some chalk. As a woman with a heathy appreciation for doodles and text, I consider chalkboard walls a fabulous home upgrade. While this is very likely the reason no one is calling me to consult on their next home renovation, I know what I like and I’m not afraid to make some bold moves in the privacy of my own home.

My favorite part about black chalkboard walls? They invite spontaneous bouts of creativity and don’t connect to the Internet. When I told my 9-year-old daughter Amelia that I planned to start writing my favorite inspirational quotes on the wall, she went ahead and composed one of her own:

“Today can be the way you want it to be. - Amelia”

While this line may not be as famous or profound as the ones I intended to write on the wall, I couldn’t help by smile when I read her contribution to the section of chalkboard space she dubbed “the wall of good fortune” where only positive things can be written. (Not that we were planning to fill our walls with negativity.)

Amelia also got quite excited about practicing her cursive on the wall, too. Another win for the educational value of this home enhancement.

While it was more challenging for the wall to awaken my 10-year-old daughter from a deep Minecraft coma, that happened, too. Abby drew a portrait of Justine, the family cat, at ground level where our favorite feline can see it when she walks by.

So, yes, painting walls black is a little unusual, but my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

It was all fun and games until we decided to erase the wall for the first time. Our makeshift erasers left chalk smeared all over and plain water didn’t help. This is when my awesome and fun chalkboard wall idea started to lose its luster. And after all that time spent painting - three thin coats applied with mini sponge rollers - the discovery that the wall would look like a big smeared mess from that day forth caused my patient husband to raise he eyebrows the way he does when he’s thinking things he knows are probably best left unsaid.

Desperate to avoid an epic craft fail and salvage the wonder and joy of the project, I turned to the Internet and googled how to clean a chalkboard wall. At first, my search turned up a lot of complaints from others who had discovered how messy chalkboard walls can be and I just about kicked myself for not researching this before we dedicated a day to painting walls - a chore I don’t enjoy at all.

My husband’s eyebrows were still hovering a little high on his forehead, so I was inspired to solve the smudge problem to save face and stick my creative landing. To have to paint over the wall would be family joke fodder for years to come.

Guided by the Internet, I retrieved a can of Coke from the pantry and poured some of it onto a rag. The beverage worked wonders on the wall and removed all the chalk smears. It seems odd to smear pop on a wall, but it works. However, I don’t want to keep dousing my walls with beverages I’d prefer to drink, so I decided to switch to a vinegar mix my husband found online. Now, I pour a little vinegar into lukewarm water and then I dip a rag into the liquid and wipe down the walls.

Now that we know how to maintain the chalkboard walls, my family can go back to enjoying them. Anyone up for a game of tic-tac-toe?

Email Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood at jennifer@craftsanity.com or send story ideas to P.O. Box 888192, Grand Rapids, MI 49588. Read Jennifer's blog at craftsanity.com. Follow @CraftSanity on Twitter and Instagram and check out the latest edition of CraftSanity Magazine available for download at craftsanity.com.